


if you close your eyes

by theheartfalls



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-09
Updated: 2013-04-09
Packaged: 2017-12-08 00:18:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/754764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theheartfalls/pseuds/theheartfalls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>time square shines and christmas is always bright, but harry sees louis like the sun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	if you close your eyes

**Author's Note:**

> just a bit of fancy wording. i love a good new york/photographer!harry au and that's basically the headcanon i live in. i got inspired by a photo of some fairy lights. so sue me.

Harry liked the winter in New York City.

He liked the snow on the ground. He liked it falling in sheets around him. He liked the cold press of the wind on his face, biting his cheeks and nose and making his hair even more unruly then usual. He loved the necessity of over-sized jackets and the cashmere of the scarf his mother had sent him the year before. 

He liked the lights. Not just the city lights that he saw every single day, summer or winter. Those were beautiful in their own right, of course, and he loved them just the same, but winter in New York brought a new brilliance. There would be a day, when the wind was cold enough but the snow was still a light presence, barely coating the city in a thin sheet, that Harry would wake up to a new type of light. 

It wasn't like he'd never seen decorative fairy lights before this. He was raised by a mother who stuck to tradition. Every year they would decorate their Christmas tree and their house. They lived in a family neighborhood, so every house on the block was in perfect order once the holidays arrived. Harry had loved the lights then, too.

He had seen them in a myriad of colors. Blues and whites mostly, but rainbow strands on his uncle's tree the year he came out, purples and pinks on his sister's tree the year she decided she wanted to decorate something of her own. He had seen an assortment of brilliance in his lifetime, but there was something unique about Central Park at this time every year that he just couldn't quite explain.

It was always a specific morning, a specific feeling, though he could never pinpoint the date. Living in New York three years and he still only had a vague feeling of what he would find on his jog through the park each morning. However, this was something he just felt. Something inside of him would click and he would have a renewed sense of joy as he pulled on his coat and head out the door. 

And, just as he suspected, all over the park, trees were covered in lights. Strands wrapped around the trunk, hanging from the branches like frozen and perfect dripping water. They would be off, the light of day making their illumination worthless, but Harry wouldn't be able to stop smiling regardless.

And late that night, he would go back, camera in hand. The lights would twinkle and the cold would be even more intense, but he'd simply wrap his scarf a little tighter and let the lights warm him from the inside out.

Three years, he lived this way. Three years of Christmas in New York and it never got old to him.

That's how Louis Tomlinson first found him. 

Louis had been raised inside the city, growing up in an apartment building with a back alley as his backyard. He had seen many things, some strange and disturbing. He'd lived a long life to only be twenty-three years old, but he wasn't bitter. He was ecstatic. He loved his city, and his experiences. He loved that nothing ever shocked him anymore. 

And yet, in all of his life, he had never seen someone quite like Harry Styles. 

Harry, with his camera and ratty scarf and wide, brilliant eyes. Harry, who was so utterly involved in the lights on the trees that had been Louis' only Christmas decoration since birth. Harry... 

Who was turning the lens on Louis.

Louis was brighter than the lights. When he smiled, Harry saw stars. 

Harry had never understood love at first sight. He'd never gotten the concept of an immovable force of love that could steal a person's breath and make them weak. The closest he ever imagined himself coming to something so splendid was the feeling he got by living in this city. That's all he imagined for himself.

There was something about Louis, though. Something about the way his eyes looked at Harry with a question neither of them could answer. Something about the way he stood, watching, like Harry wasn't more aware of his presence then anything else in the world. He had an essence, something strong and consuming, and it was the most distracting thing Harry had ever felt in his life.

He wanted to capture him. He wanted to press Louis to the film and carry him around at all times. 

_click_

He had to preserve it all.

The way small flakes fell on his soft hair, lasting only seconds before melting. His eyes, so blue and intense, watching Harry in return. The casual way he stood back, happy to observe, rather than be observed. 

He looked like everything Harry had ever been looking for and not even knowing it. 

Harry liked the winter in New York City.   
It would bring him closer to loving Louis Tomlinson.


End file.
